Part Four: America's First Fascist Governor

as opposed to any other kind of bus. But they also had all of the Tesla robots out and he apparently these twenty thousand dollars robots that can hand you bags of goodies at a party are going to solve poverty. So I'm excited to see how that works out.

for Gene to defend was its white supremacy. As Southerners grew to accept and enjoy new deoliberalism, the incongruity of the racial divisions began to manifest itself. And now, just like how the manufactured uproar over like a critical race theory a few years ago, kind of put racism back into our political conversation, the education system would be the target for Jean's new distinct focus on racism and white supremacy.

Is because this is going to be one of these other like overlaps between what Gene pioneered and how this kind of carries over to like this modern like dictatorial conservative strategy. I'm going to quote from William Anderson, Jane's biographer, quote, Georgia remained a secreationist society in nineteen forty one, and Gene Talmadge remained its greatest advocate. Prior to nineteen forty one, he had not made racism a major part of his

politics because he had no reason to. Practically every white Georgian was racist to some degree. Every candidate could be expected to treat the black of the same, which was poorly, and any issue of race had been previously overwritten by the New Deal or personality. Racism had been a part of his career, but it was far from crucial until

the nineteen forties. So during this time, schools in Georgia were undergoing badly needed reforms, and the University of Georgia hired an admin named Walter D. Cocking to improve the College of Education. So there you go, Yes, get it out now, doctor Khaki. I'm going to say it a lot. To say it a lot, Walter, Doctor Walter d Kky, We're gonna say it a lot. You can get it out now, did he go?

sent Talmich reports on the black studies programs. A Talmwich supporter in Athens its pread of rumor about doctor Cocking having an affair with a black cook that grew to

such prominence that the university president investigated and disproved the claim. Now, things all came to a head in a May nineteen forty two Board of Regents meeting where Talmadge singled out another progressive educator for removal the president of the Georgia Teachers College, doctor Marvin Pittman Gene accused him of being

engaged in local partisan politics. Jane then attacked doctor Cocking, calling him to be fired as dean, saying that doctor Cocking quote made a statement that he wanted to see the time when a school for negroes would be established at Athens so that negroes and white boys could associate together unquote okay. Jane then promised to remove any person in the university system advocating communism or racial equality. Oh, this motion passed, so that we see very classic tactics here.

in support of Cocking. The only ones there against him were Talmadge and this former high school teacher that Jane brought to complain that doctor Cocking was trying to integrate Georgia. Cocking was reinstated in a seven to eight vote. Jeene whined about this affair in The Statesman, writing quote, I'm not going to put up with social equality. We don't need no n words and white people taught together unquote.

A hearing for doctor Pittman was scheduled for July fourteenth, but this time in public at the General Assembly instead of the privacy of the Governor's office. Talmadge instructed doctor Cocking to attend this hearing as well, promising to present new evidence. This evidence focused on the Rosenwald Fund, which financed one of Cocking's studies. Yeah, you can see where this is not right.

base his politics on as liberalism progressed in this South. So Talmadge also ordered the Statesboro College Library to search for books containing quote communism or anything except Americanism unquote to use as evidence against the men in the hearings. Again very similar to all of the attacks on school and education that we've seen the past few years here in the United States. Before the hearing, Gene pressured two

oppositional members of the Board of Regents to resign. One was a lifelong friend and classmate, the other was an editor at the Constitution, the newspaper now. Friends and political advisors to Jene strongly discouraged him from doing this, as he didn't need to make more enemies at the Constitution. But more importantly, this whole affair, in Gene's increased meddling in Georgie's education system was actually going to threaten the

accreditation of George's universities. Now I'm going to quote from William Anderson as he discusses the hearing. Quote. Prior to the hearing, Gene began mounting a public campaign that painted the two men as communists, financed by Jews and bent on destroying George's culture. The public hearing was a public spectacle. The hall was packed mostly with Tallemich people, and down front center stage, white suited, smoking a huge cigar and wearing a ten gallon hat, sat Jean. It was all show.

Flash bulbs sparked the air, people cheered, police swarmed, and the show opened by reading excerpts from Brown America, The book written by Rosenwald chief Edwin Embry, had been found in the Statesboro College Library. Board regent member James S. Peters said, throughout this book, the thought runs erase the feeling of superiority of the white man. They want them, they want them to put the white men down and draw the races together. They want them to use the

same schools, right, the same trains. It means they want intermarriage.

is the same stuff that's happening now. To continue from Anderson quote, the purpose of reading the book was to find doctor Cocking and Pittman guilty by association with the Rosenwald Fund. Shocking A. Rose gave a brief denial of the charges and noted his shock at this circus hearing, saying that such tactics should be employed in any count draw on Earth is hard to believe that they are employed in Georgia. Has all the earmarks of a terrific nightmare. The galley shouted Yankee teacher quote.

were on campus. This was Jane's single witness against the educator. Meanwhile, Pittman had thirty six witnesses, but the board voted once again ten to five to terminate doctor Pittman. This whole incident caused a degree of uproar, and Gene responded by writing, quote, doctor Cocking favored the teaching of white and Negro children in the same classrooms. My god, I am opposed to social equality, and as long as I am the governor of Georgia, no such teaching will be permitted in our

school system. Doctor Cocking, as you know, was reared into Iowa, where white and colored are taught in this same classroom. His conducts, his conduct since being in Georgia is proof of the fact that he retains the views and ideas gained to him in the state of Iowa. I am not in favor of such foreign ideas being taught in our university system. Unquote.

say that there's going to be a hurricane. That's you know, and that's inconvenient to your belief system because hurricanes are clearly getting worse, and you've denied climate change for years, Like all of this shit you know, the current push against any kind of like integration, all of the fucking white genocide panics. Like back in the day, in Talmadge's day, when you had all of these fucking freaks complaining about the idea of black and white kids going to school together.

The only thing that overcame their disinformation and paranoia and bigotry was sending men with machine guns in and saying, we will fucking kill you if you don't integrate these schools. That's what the government had to do. Anyway, food for thought.

Not great again. Like when Eugene Talmadge is forced to defend his own racism on radio in nineteen forty two, Sure that shows how bad he is, because at this point everyone is racist, Like people in the university in the university system aren't actually calling for like mass integration like that, that's not what they're doing. Gene is just so like fucked up on racist that he thinks any any small step that might eventually lead to lead to

that outcome has to be like fundamentally opposed. But like doctor Cocking isn't actually calling for all the schools to be integrated, like that's like he's like, that's that's simply not what's happening right now.

was actually just illegal. Gina knew that the AG was concerned, so when Arnold was out of town for a few days, Gene instructed the AGI's office to write an opinion affirming the governor's actions, and then when the AGI returned, he had to countermand this opinion and announced that he would be running for governor against Gene to secure academic freedom.

Henry Sperlin, one of Jean's longest friends, did claim that Gene actually tried to have the ag arrested while he was vacationing in Florida, just to bring him back to Atlanta during the legislative session to affirm his actions. Although I think I think Arnold denies this. There's there's some some conflicting reports over whether Gene tried to have the h arrested.

an agreement between the regions and the accreditation Committee. Jane also refused to sign a letter stating that he did not have complete control over the entire university system, saying quote, I think it's a mistake for the governor to write any letter which might limit his authority as the governor. Quote.

One of Jean's allies on the board begged him to reconsider, warning that if the accreditation issue did not get resolved soon, it could turn thousands of families and students against Jane. His wife and his advisors also wanted him to back down, but fan mail from racist to support told him otherwise.

Not fan mail. Gene received so much fan mail from like racist like I've sure rule supporters, and he listened to that way more than he listened to any of his like actual political advisors, because like this was this is this is what, this is what the people were actually wanting. He really, he really enjoyed reading through his fan mail. This is like a really this was really important to the way Gene operated as.

glad I've had a positive impact on this person. There's someone who will like message you with something that is so that is evidence that like that they're they're having a problem, right, Like that happens a lot when you're a contactable person with any level of fame, and it's deeply upsetting. It's it's not I'm not complaining, it's just like, oh, you are messaging me because you think that I have some sort of special inform like knowledge that can help

you when you're like very serious problem. And that is like every fifth letter you get you when you're famous, and it's it's not fun.

strong that they would risk almost to any loss. Jeane felt the implications and the threat were of a far greater magnitude than even the New Deal, though he saw them both as a common conspiracy by outside to take over the lives of Georgians unquote. So, after attempts at an agreement between the regions and the Accreditlation Committee failed, finally in December, they've they voted to end the accreditation

of all of Georgie's state schools. The Saint Louis Dispatch wrote, quote, here in the heart of Dixie has developed a prize of specimen of full blown American fascism. The dictatorship is just as effective and just as vicious as the Huey Long dictatorship. Unquote.

between between Talmadge's racism and Arnold's racism. Sure Anderson notes Arnell, emerging as Jen's only opponent, said that the issue was not the black man, not the mixing of races, but whether George's children would be denied quality education unquote. Now to Arnold's success was that this election only be a two man race, and he successfully convinced others not to run as it would split the county and vote, giving

Gene an almost automatic victory. Arnell knew that a large number of people would vote for racism and that he was not equipped to beat Gene in a quote unquote n word hating contest. Education remained the only remaining vector of attack against Gene. Now, on top of fixing the school crisis, Arnell also called to put more limits on

the governor's individual power. In campaign speeches, Arnell called Talmadge George's own version of Hitler, and he called for Georgians to quote awaken to the dangerous trend in our state government. Unquote Yeah, that would be nice, That would be nice if people, Oh.

The Atlanta Journal noted that Jeane's candidacy had soured because of too much racism. Old friends seemed to be leaving him in droves, and it became a part of every Arnol speech to have ex Talmach people turn in their red suspenders. Students protested, rallies chanting to hell with Talmage. Unquote, Dick Chady has come out against Eugene Talmage. All of Talmadge's former cabinet has come out against Euchene Talmage. Great, all these guys had also sucker, Like, yeah, Gen sucks a little.

this like endless cycle of like crop farming that your family and your parents, your grandparents, their grandparents had all been doing for their entire lives. Like education was their way out, was their way out of this system, and

Gene was stealing it from them. So massive, massive student organizing happened against Gene Talmadge during during this race, so much so that Talmage supporters in Athens, where the University of Georgia is thought it would be too dangerous for a Gene to speak in town while school was still in session, and instead he was advised to hold rallies in surrounding towns, and at Statesboro College, Gene's driver and sometimes bodyguard teargast a group of student protesters while Gens

spoke instance like this bolstered arnold'sttacks on Gene as a dictatorial strong man, saying that Governor Talmadge was quote carrying a bunch of strong arm runts and and plug ugly is ready to use a mustard gas on children.

attack and a blackjack unquote. Now, this was either slang meaning a police baton or like coercion via threats.

Oh no, they found a doctor in town. Gene was given medication and told to cancel the speech, which, of course, he refused to do so. He began his our long speech suffering from great pain and not in and not long into the speech, torrential downpour caused most of the audience to abandon Jane, leaving only a handful of attendees in the rain and a few others listening from their cars.

I'm gonna read from Anderson quote. The rain pelted Jean's lonely figure slightly bent with pain, but he kept talking hard and loud, so that those in their cars could hear. The water pounded in the paper bunting, washing its fragile red, white and blues all over the pine planking in gashes of color. It drenched Jean's suit and plastered his hair against his head, but he still went on, wet to the bone, alone and herding badly from the bite. After

twenty five minutes he could give no more. He hobbled dejectedly from the platform to the applause of honking car horns. Only one prompter had remained with them, and when he asked, what about the Negroes going to our schools? Jean Talma responded, Before godfriend, the n words will never go to a school which is white. While I am governor, he blamed the whole mess on carpetbaggers, communists, and the newspapers.

For example, at one of his rallies, Elis Arnold stated quote, why if a negro ever tried to get into a white school in the section where I live, the sun would not set on his head? Unquote good Lord Jesus Christ. So yeah, like everyone's bad. During a radio appearance, while Arnell thought he was off mike, he was accidentally broadcast saying quote any n word who tried to enter the university would not be in existence the next day.

to do that. We'll have like regular white people kill the like it's we'll just have the regular white people like kill black people if they try to get into the schools like that. Like that that that's that's where what's That's where the line comes down. It's like it's the it's the specific it's the specific focus that the

racial issue is framed in their politics. That shows like the difference between the two candidates, even though both are like kind of raging, murderous racist Georgians in the nineteen.

just a few years ago. The New Deal elections just drew out much more enthusiasm and a greater number of votes, and World War II was certainly a contributing factor to there being less votes this year. Now. Unlike his last defeat, this time there was no stop this Deal, and Gene admitted that the university accreditation issue lost him the election. Still, the vast, vast majority of Georgians were still incredibly racist, Elis Rnel among them, but all he had to do

was present his prejudice in a more responsible way. I'm going to quote from Anderson quote. Gene's defeat did not mean that Georgians were ready to embrace black people or allow integrated schools. But the vote was a significant statement which testified to the profound changes that had occurred in the white Georgian's mind. They had faced the racial issue, and for the first time in history, they had blinked

thereby showing a flexibility. Not much, but some the voters did show that they valued something more than white supremacy. Probably few other issues would have caused such a vote, but the fact that one issue did cause the white reaction was historically significant. Jean had misread Georgian's willingness to reject the old way for a second time. He had shown again how his personality politics could not withstand a confrontation with great issues. Reality had again defeated idealism. So

that's the situation in nineteen forty two. Now after the election, Jean's race controversies continued. In the last month of office, it was learned that for two years Jeane had been receiving monthly food deliveries of vegetables and meat grown and processed by inmates at the state prison farm. The slave labor deliveries were sent both to his house in Atlanta and his farm in MCA. When questioned about this, Jean seemed proud, saying I didn't pay for a penny of it.

I'd advise the next governor to try the same plan. It helps keep expenses down. Rumors also circulated that Mitt, Jean's wife, was using prison labor to help keep the farm up and running, with an old neighbor saying quote, Mitt worked the cheapest nwords she could find. That's one of the reasons that she made such good money out

on the farm unquote. And then after the election, our old journalist's friend, Ralph McGill reported that Jean had been spotted at a KKK meeting, a claim that Jane did not dispute, instead writing to McGill, Ralph, I don't hate anyone. I know that hatred dwarfs the man who carries it in his soul and does not affect the one whom he hates at all. Everyone had a great time, and I wish, Ralph that you could have been there unquote. So this is what g was getting up to in his semi retirement.

rights and compromise the segregationist South. A headline in Jean's newspaper The Statesman read a quote election of Roosevelt means promoting negroes in Georgia unquote, I mean and great. So like after the war, certainly there was that there were more calls for black civil rights because a whole bunch of black people had just like fought for the United

States overseas. And it's like Gene knew that that was gonna happen, and that was one of his primary objections to the war, as well as this like proto Illuminati conspiracy theory that that Roosevelt was like specifically getting into the war so that he could spread like a globalized new deal. That was so like we can see little seeds again of talking points that that will become more common, you know, once we got to like the John Birch

Society like a decade or so later. Now as a last fuck you from FDR all the way back in nineteen thirty five, when Gene was eyeing up the presidency, Roosevelt sent the IRS to investigate Gene's finances, and after a fruitless ten year search, the IRS came to Jean's law office and gave him a three thousand dollars bill for all of the work that they had done. I don't know that's how the IRS is supposed to work.

to fall back on was again racism. In spring of nineteen forty six, the Supreme Court ruled that the whites only primary elections were unconstitutional and that black citizens must be allowed to vote in primaries. This sent shockwaves through the South. In response to the court ruling, Gene called for the state's primary election laws to be completely abolished, leaving the primary regulations up to the party. Then the Democratic Party could decide on having an all white primary.

That no serious politician like this plan, as it would mean an end to the county unit system and all the legal safeguards against election fraud. Basically, Gene's idea would

seriously jeopardize Georgia's ability to function as a legitimate state. Okay, this is this is in line with like his whole thing during the Cocking affair, right, Like he's able, like he is willing to jeopardize the legitimacy of the government and end of the state just to ensure white supremacy, and like this is what separates him from the other politicians.

Right the other politicians are like, no, we still need to have like a working state, Like we still need to, we still need to, we still need to be able to function. And Jan's willing to like sabotage like the state's own ability to operate, just to ensure his white supremacist like ideology is going to be intact after his death.

So like, regardless of whatever Gene was up to, Governor Arnold refused to call for a session to alter voting laws, taking the somewhat bold stance of requesting that the good people of Georgia let black people vote in their primary. This was actually like pretty progressive for the time, especially

for a governor in the South. For all of Arnold's racism that we've already discussed, this was like one of the better things he did, and this kind of helped to improve his legacy as a governor, the fact that he did not oppose black people voting in party primaries. So unable to abolish or change primary law, Gene decided to give the governor's race one last shot in a campaign to save the white primary. Gene was now sixty one and was getting increasingly ill. He drank too much

and he barely ate. Friends and family, including his wife, Met pleaded with genea not to run, worry that the campaign might literally kill him. But Jene thought there was no one else more qualified to run a white supremacist campaign than himself. Anderson says, quote Jane considered the Negro

the vulnerable spot in the liberals armor. His son, Herman, now back from the Navy, and a number of other astute advisors, were in disagreement with Gene over the degree of emphasis that should be placed on the racial issue. Hermann had seen his father ride race to defeat in nineteen forty two, and while Georgia was still very much racist, she had allowed her attitudes towards Black Americans to suffer erosion,

not by very much, but there had been movement. The Supreme Court decision provided Gene with some badly needed angles on the racial issue, which needed some substantiation. It had generally been felt that the black cause had advanced, but there had been comfort in knowing that the advancement had been more myth than reality. The court ruling changed all that and thrust the Negro into the foreground as an issue. It also sent a shudder through George's liberal establishment, for

very few of them favored social integration. It would cost them their reressive credibility to join the chorus against Black Americans. But worse than that, they feel that an outburst of white supremacy would obliterate them at the polls. Unquote, So Gene equated this post war period with the reconstruction right in his main campaign platform was to ensure quote a democratic white primary unfettered and unhampered by radical communism and

alien forces unquote. Jean's son, Herman, was heavily involved in the nineteen forty six selection campaign and wrote the rest of his platform. Hermann tried to soften some of his father's, like Harsher ultra conservative edges. The first draft of Herman's platform shocked Gene, saying, good God Almighty, who wrote this stuff? But Gene eventually agreed. The strategy was to please the predominantly racist white Georgians as well as attract Talmadge skeptic

liberals with Herman's economics. The results saw Gene call for quote social reforms to be protected and maintained, and we must protect the news grow from the communist influence unquote. That was his basic like combined platform. He was kind of embracing some of the more liberal economics that he had spent his whole career deriding, while doubling down on like the race issue. Jene formally started his campaign in May, for going the typical barbecue cookout and his rallies were

smaller and more docile than usual. Crowd sizes across the state, across all campaigns were smaller than they used to be. This is attributed to a number of factors of like the mass adoption of home radio, less bountiful food post war, and for this summer especially, people were staying home out of fears of like a so called race riot now

adding to the racist focus in the campaign. In June, Gene announced that if elected, he would cease all interstate bus travel through Georgia in response to a new federal ruling that declared that black people have the right to sit anywhere they wanted on a bus crossing state lines. To maintain segregated seating, Gene proposed a system where to enter or exit the state, passengers would have to leave their bus on the state line and get a special

ticket for travel within Georgia. This was the length he was willing to go. H just a completely ludicrous, a completely ludicrous system. Or you have to get off the bus, get a special ticket, re enter the bus with segregated seating.

get angrier. And as a general rule, the primary resource you have as a guy like Talmage is the anger of life, the anger of your regular dumb people. Right, Like that's it. So yeah, I guess it all makes sense in the end. Make everything worse. Yeah, So other Republican Party works today, sure.

and Talmage needed papers to cover himself. But in the forty sixth race, this dynamic fully tipped over into open hostility, with each side now viewing the other as legitimately dangerous and no longer useful. As the papers attacked Gene, reporters received threats and harassment from his supporters and had to go undercover at campaign rallies. At one small kind of backwater town, Jean spotted a talmidch critical reporter whom he banned from visiting his office, hiding in the crowd, and

he started ranting about them lying Atlanta newspapers. And then he pointed to the lone reporter, thar he is, now, I do love that it is spelled t haar. The reporter braced for like a gang assault, but Gene ordered his boys to let him up on stage. As he climbed on the platform, Gene whispered in his ear, I know you're a pretty good fella, you just right that way unquote. Well, so that is the situation in the uh in the campaign at this point in time. Do

you know what we also think are pretty good fellas? Sometimes?

overlooking Atlanta. The second iteration of the Clan, started thirty years prior, was also founded on Stone Mountain, and Stone Mountain is currently the largest Confederate monument in the country, and it's still often home to white nationalist rallies. To quote William Anderson quote, rumors of the affair swept the state, causing near hysteria and giving Gene most of the credit for bringing the Klan back to life with his demagogery.

The event itself was a comical ragtag affair, which embarrassed its leaders because they kept running out of sheets to give to new members. Many of them were forced to wrap themselves in paper and handkerchiefs. They were psychologically impoverished of the new age, the cultural laggers, the indebted, the uneducated, the scared, the have nots, in the age of the Halves. They grasped the clan in desperation. It was the only

club in town that invited them. Its mysterious sounding rights and verbiage, its hoods and ornaments, and its history of resistance to the blacks, and its dedication to the past gave them a feeling of power and belonging unquote. Now, I kind of disagree with some of Anderson's characterization of this rally. Anderson writes that like those gathered on Stone Mountain were like a sad, pathetic lot who had been

left behind by changing society. And it's not that they were left behind, it'said they were like stubborn, cruel and cowardly, like they refused to join society. Like Anderson, both discounts their agency and the threat of violence they posed, saying it was high irony that society would look at the souls with such fear and dread, as though they were a well disciplined horder that could sweep from the mountain and destroy at will unquote, and like, I get what

Anderson's saying here. I don't want to give them too much credit. I don't want to give like, like you know, current day white supremacists too much credit for being like a well organized faction that can destroy democracy at like, at any moment.

One of the victims was seven months pregnant, and she sorted that the unborn baby was cut out of the mother's body by the mob.

kind of bring to mind, well, then if this was something that a lot of people in the White South were fine with doing, what should we have done in this period to the White South anyway?

The FBI also looked into Talmadge's possible involvement, and though rumors that he like personally led the mob were certainly untrue, Jane did campaign in town shortly before the lynching, and witnesses reported that Gene spoke with one of the futurest suspects and offered impunity to anyone quote unquote taking care of the Negro unquote. An FBI memmo suggested that Talmadge may have sanctioned the killings in order to help win

the badly needed rule County unit vote shortly after. The county did indeed go to Talmadge at the very least. Jean's nineteen forty six campaign rhetoric was widely blamed for prompting the brutally racist murders. Later that summer, hooded KKK members held rallies at county courthouses to scare black people away from voting just like during reconstruction. Anderson notes, quote Gene said it would be an accident if he got

even one black vote. Unquote. The liberal candidate James Carmichael did win the popular vote with three hundred and thirteen thousand votes to Jean's two hundred and ninety seven thousand, but Talmadge pulled through in the county unit vote by

about a hund undred points. The campaign of yester Year's racism had won the state That summer, The Charlotte News wrote, the South will one day be rid of its talmages, but not until we have completed the long and painful process of purging ourselves of the sickness upon which they feed.

again due to hemorrhaging. While in the hospital, Talmuch's team was still working on plans to save the White primary, this time by disqualifying all of the registered voters in the state. But by mid December. But by mid this, I mean this is actually also like what the modern right is doing to affect the upcoming election, where they're doing like mass like unvoter registrations again like specifically targeting

like black areas, especially in Texas. I know that they have that they have done this as well as well as in Georgia. Like this is this tactic of like of of disqualifying registered voters just to sway elections is still being used now. By mid December, Gene contracted a cute tepatitis and at this point he knew he was dying. I'm going to quote from the book Race and Racism in the United States, quote on his deathbed, he told his Baptist preacher that the black race was created inferior

by God. He said the white race was on top, the yellow race next, and then the brown and red races, and at the very bottom the black race, who were created to be servants to all other races. Unquote deathbed remarks.

he would live. Now. Some of his last recorded words are on a phone call to his friend Henry Sperlin, who was out buying cattle for Jane's farm, and with with Jean's dying breaths, he whispered over the phone, Spud's that was Sperlin's nickname, Spud, don't buy no more cowsquote tragic. Eugene Talwich fell into a coma and died that next morning, That was December twenty one. Yeah.

There's one more pick. So with Jene dying before being sworn in as governor, the office should have been passed down to the Lieutenant governor elect, Melvin E. Thompson. As Thompson asserted his claim to the governor's office, Jean's son, Herman Talmadge, announced that he was instead going to take

the governor's office. So as Gene was dying, he was calling up political associates to ask to ask that they help Herman pick up the baton from Gene after his death, and Herman himself had actually already prepared for this contingency before the general election. A friend of Herman uncovered an old clause in the state constitution stipulating that if the governor elect dies before taking office, the General Assembly could appoint whoever had the second most votes in the general election.

Though Jane ran unopposed in the general Hermann suspected that the Liberal candidate might receive write in protest votes, so for insurance, Hermann launched a covert write in campaign for himself and claimed to receive a thousand votes, beating the other right in candidates. Governor Arnold rejected Herman's claim to the office and stated that he himself would remain governor indefinitely until the mess was sorted out. So there was now three men claiming to be the rightful governor of Georgia,

all citing different clauses in state constitution. A joint Assembly met on January fourteenth to decide who was governor. The Assembly counted the write in votes for Herman, and it appeared that there were far less than Talmadge proclaimed, with the official count losing Herman the right and race. This was, however, until a box of fifty eight additional votes mysteriously arrived from Telfair County, which was Herman's home county, and these

spontaneously appearing extra votes gave Talmadge a small lead. Mysteriously appeared ah, well, we'll get to it cool. I'm going to quote from the AJC quote. As the vote neared, one of the weapons of choice was alcohol. Each side hoped the other might be too drunk to vote.

So we had some of our friends organize a rehab hospital down in the Public Service Commission in the Capitol where they would be where they would try to keep our people functioning unquote. So, after a series of fights, offensively deployed alcohol and some sketchy political maneuvers, Herman was voted governor by the legislature and sworn in at two am. Eight to ten thousand Talmadge supporters broke into the capitol and joined Herman as he went to take the governor's office.

Governor Arnold refused to leave. He saw Talmadge's ascension as illegitimate and called Herman a pretender. A massive fistfight broke out in the capitol. Furniture was smashed and Arnell's staffers were assaulted by the mob. Herman climbed onto a desk to tell his orders to leave. Arnell was escorted out of the Governor's office and Talmage had the locks changed. Arnell was still asserting that he was acting governor. Instead of leaving the capitol, he set up a desk in

the rotundra and tried to conduct business as usual. So we had two men in the capital with separate desks, both claiming to be governor now. The next day, Herman carried a thirty eight caliber pistol to work, as he did for the remainder of his term, scaring that he might have to use it against an Arnold man.

those mysterious fifty eight extra votes from Telfair County. He located the list of writing votes and noticed that thirty four of them had apparently voted in alphabetical order, starting with A and stopping with K. Finding this highly improbable, Goodwin tried to track down these individuals voters, only to discover that some of these people did not exist, others had died before the election, and Moore had either moved

away prior to the election or abstained from voting. Goodwin won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on this, and seventeen days after his expose, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the General Assembly exceeded their jurisdiction by electing Hermann Talmadge and that the Lieutenant governor elect from the time of Jean's death, Melvin Thompson, would indeed serve as governor. So that that's how Jane tried to actually extend his power past his death in the so called three governors controversy.

I mean, it's one of the basiest things.

has never has never been elected. His only claim to fame is that he's the son of Eugene Talmadge. That I have, I I have one final kind of closing note on Townwdge's rain over Georgia. So Talnwridge's intermittent rain over the state arose during the start of substantial progress in the South, and Gene was the reactionary embodiment of resistance to change. He was the vessel for his Confederate ancestors as the modern world invaded Georgia. Jean mastered the

politics of theater and white. Georgia was enthralled with his performance. For two decades, people either loved or hated Jane. There was very little in between. His core supporters were the rich businessmen and the dirt poor little guy. Jane's economics paved the way for the intense corporate control over Georgia

that continues to this day. Yeah and I will I will finally close with with some of the some of the words of the last page of Gene's biography quote, if the businessman supplied the money, the poor farmer supplied the court vote that gave Talmage his power. He had no real solutions for these people. His solutions had all

been proven wrong by the very past he revered. He served them as an emotional crutch when their consciousness was being shattered by the catastrophic depression and the subsequent radicalism of the New Deal. As long as he played by their rules, they supported him. But when he tried to take the new fruits away from them, or sought real power by running for the Senate, they denied him. They wanted him basically powerless, though they reveled in his power plays,

which was a prisoner of history. A culturalizlationist lost in a time frame, that he was unable to leave on his own, and that his supporters finally refused to help him leave. Gene Talmadge strode the decade when Georgia got up and went along. When she began to pull up stakes, learned to say yes and became less preoccupied with self

and looking beyond, she lost something and gained something. Her people had looked beyond the tall pines at the end of the field and realized for the first time that something better must be out there, and in doing so they admitted defeat, admitted they could no longer go it at their own. In nineteen ten, sixty sixty one percent of all Georgians were rural farm dwellers. By nineteen forty the figure it hit forty four percent. There is drama here,

There is preparation for profound change. And the drama of Eugene Talmage is that he arrived in the dead middle of this great physical and mental shift. The fact that he was elected to state office four times during this period does not indicate that the shifts were meaningless. To the contrary, they illustrate the eg in the passion of

the move. These were people briefly awash. Having pushed off from a safe shore and uncertain of the new ground they were testing, eyes darted quickly back to the old place. Hearts were touched instantly by its recollections. Hands formed on the plow handles unconsciously grasped for worn grain. Geene was the shore that they had left, and that was his ultimate loss. I what do you think, Robert, I.

it in fucking chlorine gas fumes. The guy who was investigating it for the state collapsed like while giving a state or giving testimony about.

Because again we could talk about the men with machine guns.

traced back to Eugene Talmage. And yeah, in some ways, although he lost the battle for segregation in the next like ten twenty years, he really did kind of win

in the end in some ways. I mean, especially if you look at how we've talked about these last four episodes, how the template that he laid out is now being followed by DeSantis, by Trump, by by by all of these guys seeking power, and it works, and I think it's not again, Like it is a travesty that Jeane died before being sworn into office for a fourth time.

The fact that he died of like liver failure instead of many other means, and or the fact that that he died on his way to taking office once again on an explicit platform of white supremacy shows that maybe he actually did kind of win in the end. And I think I am looking at him as like, like he is like the last real like Southern den Democrat, right he is. He's the last guy before the South

moves to being racist Republicans. Yeah, and like that that is his legacy, is that this is that this is that this Democrat party man actually paved the way for Republicans to completely ruin the country and the states, uh for the next like eighty years.